Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Today we learn from the Canadian Press that Harper says his tax policy helped repatriate the Timbit.

What a joke for a professed accomplishment and a complete mischaracterisation of his term in office in terms of Canadian ownership of Canadian enterprise.

Meanwhile Harper’s inane tax policy to double tax income trust has had an enormous negative effect on the ownership of Canadian businesses, and resulted in billions of foreign takeovers which displaced TAXABLE Canadian investors and replaced them with non taxable foreign investors.

As a Canadian, what would you rather own? Timbits or Prime West Energy Trust that was acquired by Abu Dhabi Energy? Timbits or TransAlta Power Income Fund that was acquired by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka Shing? Timbits or Union Energy Waterheaters Income Fund that was acquired by Allinda Partners? Timbits or BCE that was almost acquired by US Private Equity who insisted that BCE fire 2500 people in advance of closing, to make it more palatable?

The list goes on and on.

What will Canadians be left owning at the end of the day? Timbits or tidbits? That is the question. What are the Opposition parties doing about it, apart from playing dumb, deaf and mute?Harper says his tax policy helped repatriate the Timbit Sep 23, 2009 01:53 PMTHE CANADIAN PRESS

Harper met with Tim Hortons executives today after shareholders of the multinational coffee chain voted to reorganize as a Canadian public company.

Parent company Tim Hortons Inc. (TSX: THI) announced in June that it intended to shift its corporate ownership back north of the border, saying it would save on taxes and make international expansion easier.

Following his meeting just west of Toronto in Oakville, Ont., Harper championed his tax policies, saying lower taxes are attracting business to Canada.

Harper says Tim Hortons' decision to return to Canada from the United States shows the government's tax strategy is working.

The iconic purveyor of coffee had been registered in Delaware for nearly 15 years as a result of its purchase by U.S. burger chain Wendy's in the 1990s.

"Tim Hortons' return in the midst of the global recession is a clear signal that Canada is poised to come out of these tough times stronger than ever," Harper said.

"The path we are on will draw home many other Canadian companies and businesses, it will attract highly skilled immigrants here from all over the world."

Tim Hortons, founded in the mid-'60s by Cochrane, Ont.-born hockey legend Tim Horton, became part of Wendy's in 1995, forging a partnership led by Wendy's founder Dave Thomas that saw the restaurants sit side-by-side at many locations.

After Thomas died in 2002, the two companies started to drift apart, with the doughnut chain choosing to focus on sandwiches and other breakfast and lunch options. The concept clashed with offerings from the Wendy's brand.

In 2006, the company was spun off into its own American entity, though its corporate headquarters remained in Oakville and most of its stores are in Canada.

Since then, the chain has struggled to boost sales in the United States despite thriving in Canada.

It has been a publicly traded company, listed on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges, since Wendy's first began to spin off its shares.

Shareholders will hold the same amount of stock as before, and the company will continue to operate under the Tim Hortons name with stock listings on the TSX and the New York Stock Exchange.

If you and I can see it, why is it lame brained Canadians can't? Are we that dumb, ignorant or just don't care? Harper and his cronies have indebted Canadians so much that the loss of tax revenue from trusts is just like pissing in the ocean. No one will ever notice it. What is a few billion lost here and there especially when you are swimming in a sea of debt now nearing 65 billion? Of cours that is if you believe Flaherty's latest round of figures.

Canadians can't see it because media won't report it.As for Harper's 'low taxes'; tell it to the Irish. Their country was devastated by 'foreign' interests slopping at the 'low tax' trough. But hey, once a pimp...

I talked to the CFO of Tim Hortons the other day and he says that Tim Hortons never really left Canada to begin with and nothing has really changed. You don't say! Tim Hortons restaurants in Canada pay tax in Canada and Tim Hortons restaurants in the US, you guessed it, pay tax in the US. The franchise fees are the only tax issue.

There you go again. Some more Harper lies and I agree well said crf. Now if the media had the balls to report all the news and not only the partisan news they do. Canadians would have a decent chance to know this PM and the man he isn't but the cheat that he is. The Reform party who want us to believe they are the conservatives, get a lot of free advertising and the sad part about it, they are getting away with it.

Bruce, the reason Canadians do not see this is because of the partisan media. They have been in Harpers pocket ever since he became PM. Not a journalist with any itregerity or brains do do the job they trained to be. Ethics mean ditto to them and its pretty sad when we can believe opinions which is all we have in Canada. I don't know what will shake them up but short of becoming bankrupt, i don't think it ever will. Maybe a few slander suits woud help.

EVENTS

Income Trust Halloween VigilThanks to all who participated in both the Ottawa and Calgary vigils to mark the anniversary of the announcement.

WE"D LIKE SOME ANSWERS

As you well know, the ‘income trust thing’ has grown beyond the
question of whether fair taxes are paid on income from trusts. It’s
become a giant dirty snowball, and as it rolls forward it accumulates
more and more bulk. There are so many unanswered questions. Let's list a few and invite our "Accountable" government and our free press to provide some much-needed answers.

It is said “Trusts are inefficient use of capital. Why?” Two
related questions are ‘Whose money is it, anyway?’, and ‘Do Canadian
investors have a free and efficient market?’

How can information that is already in the public domain at SEDAR
make for a state secret? How could such information be used to harm
the Canadian national interest? And who would cause the harm?

Why won’t the Canadian media investigate the falsehoods and
misrepresentations told by the Minister of Finance to a committee of
Parliament? Was the Minister in contempt of Parliament?

Why won’t the Canadian media report (a) government tax revenues
gained from BCE in 2006 when BCE was a corporation to (b) government
tax revenues that would be gained in 2007 from BCE, if BCE had been
allowed to proceed to a trust, and (c) government tax revenues that
will be gained in 2007 from BCE, when BCE ownership has been carved
up as 45% foreign ownership and 55% large Canadian pension fund
ownership?